The strange and weirdly uneconomic Galilee Basin coal play just got weirder and more uneconomic:
Plans to dump 3 million cubic metres of material dredged from the ocean floor into the Great Barrier Reef area will be abandoned under changes to already approved plans to expand the Abbot Point coal terminal in Queensland.
North Queensland Bulk Ports, GVK Hancock and Adani Group will re-submit a proposal as early as this week to Environment Minister Greg Hunt proposing alternative dumping sites on land. The change is designed to neutralise controversy over potential damage to the reef and avoid a court case launched by the North Queensland Conservation Council.
The fresh proposal will supersede Mr Hunt’s previous approval of dumping the material in the ocean under strict conditions and restart the process, which could delay construction.
That will add more costs to a project that already makes no sense given it’s break even is considered to be around $100 per tonne. With the pot price 30% below that, why not just buy a mine (or all of them for that matter) in Newcastle that’s pumping it out at $70, I ask you?
